The present invention relates to small water craft such as kayaks, canoes, row boats, sail boats, and paddle boards that may be folded to obtain a smaller form factor to facilitate storage and/or transportation of the kayak. The present invention is of particular significance when applied to kayaks and paddle boards, and examples of the application of the principles of the present invention will be described herein in the context of kayaks and paddle boards. The principles of the present invention are, however, more generally applicable to other types of small watercraft such as canoes, row boats, and sail boats. The scope of the present invention should thus be determined with respect to the claims appended hereto and not the following description of several examples of the invention.
Conventional foldable kayaks have not seen a large degree of commercial success because such kayaks have typically lacked the stability, reliability, ease of use and other desirable characteristics of a traditional, one-piece kayak. Previous foldable kayaks have many shortfalls that prevented widespread adoption of folding kayaks.